CPI (M) asks government to table 12th Plan document in Parliament

New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has asked the government to urgently table the 12th Plan document for debate in the ongoing session of Parliament so as to avoid cost escalation and ‘haphazard and shoddy implementation’ of development schemes as was witnessed in the last plan.

"The 11th Plan, which was presented to Parliament only in the second year of the Plan, had led to almost no scheme being finalized in the first two years. Resultantly, the remaining three years of the Plan also suffered from haphazard and shoddy implementation of various schemes," senior CPI (M) leader Basudeb Acharia said in a letter written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The consequences of ‘this unprofessional way of governance’ in delaying the tabling of the 11th Plan document in Parliament were ‘there for all to see in the form of staggering of timelines, huge escalation of costs, inordinate delays in the development delivery process, deceleration of the economy, mind boggling corruption etc. to cite a few’.

Maintaining that it was ‘already too late’ for the 15th Lok Sabha to take it up with the last session being in progress now, Acharia urged the Prime Minister to present the 12th Plan document ‘at least now so that the Parliament knows and debates on the contents of the 12th Plan’.

The CPI (M) leader reminded the Prime Minister that he had raised the issue with him in February 2012 and taken it up with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in 2013 to ask the government to present the 12th Plan papers in the House immediately.

"It appears that the government has been unmindful of even this communication to the presiding officer of the Lok Sabha," he said.

"Not only did my missive go unheeded but two years have passed since then and the presentation of the Plan document to Parliament, which is the statutory responsibility of any government of the day, is nowhere in sight," Acharia said.